Nicolas Chouity wins EPT Grand Final Main Event

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Nicolas Chouity went into the final table at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo with a huge chip lead and put that stack advantage to excellent use, eliminating a succession of players to take the biggest win of his career.

The 23-year-old from Beirut knocked out six of his seven final table opponents, eventually seeing off Austria's Josef Klinger heads up. The final hand summed up Chouity's amazing few days. Klinger must have though he was in pretty good shape getting all the chips in with his pocket eights. The only problem being that Chouity flipped over Aces. The rockets held up to give the Beirut man a whopping €1.7m payout.

The delighted winner said, “It’s a dream come true. I feel great. I had confidence coming into the final and I had the chip lead but you never know with poker and I was going for first, only first.” Chouity become only the second Lebanese player to win an EPT Main Event, following in the footsteps of Joseph Mouwad who won EPT London in season 4.

Chouity's win could be the first half of an amazing Lebanese double with Dori Yacoub holding the chip lead in the $25k High Roller heading into the final table.

Tuesday is the deadline for all working Americans to have submitted their income tax returns to the federal government and Juicy Stakes and Intertops Poker are set to mark this annual occasion by holding a special freeroll competition featuring a $1,000 top prize.

“We run a lot of higher stakes tournaments for our more hard-core players,” said Intertops’ poker manager. “But since our network is generally pretty soft, we created this series to give less competitive players a shot at winning.”